Tesla Shares Slump After Elon Musk Taunts the SEC on Twitter

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tesla

Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA)

 

Elon Musk appeared to taunt the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Thursday, only a few days after the billionaire entrepreneur reached an agreement with the financial regulator for misleading investors.

Musk took to his personal Twitter account saying, “Just want to [sic] that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!”

He later replied to a Twitter user who told him he needs “a social team that can get attention without typos and without enraging the Shortseller Enrichment Committee.” Mr. responded, “Sorry about the typo. That was unforgivable. Why would they be upset about their mission? It’s what they do.”

The Tesla Chief Executive has long criticized shortsellers – a group of investors who have been betting on a drop in shares of the electric car company.

On Saturday, Musk and Tesla reached an agreement with the SEC, which went after him following his August 7 tweet in which he claimed he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

Under the terms of the settlement, Musk and Tesla will pay a fine of $20 million each. In addition to the fines, he will have to step down from his position as chairman of the company for three years, though he is allowed to remain as CEO.

The agency also requires him to abide by company communications procedures when tweeting about important Tesla-related financial information.

The settlement, however, is still subject to court approval. On Thursday, a US District Judge ordered Musk, Tesla, and the regulator to file documents by October 11 detailing why they think it is reasonable and fair.

Tesla stock, which closed Thursday’s regular session with a loss of $12.97, sank further by more than 3% to $274.50 in pre-market trading Friday.

Tesla Inc Company Profile

Tesla, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, Norway, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Automotive, and Energy Generation and Storage.

The Automotive segment offers sedans and sport utility vehicles. It also provides electric vehicle powertrain components and systems to other manufacturers; and services for electric vehicles through its company-owned service centers, Service Plus locations, and Tesla mobile technicians. This segment sells its products through a network of company-owned stores and galleries.

The Energy Generation and Storage segment offers energy storage products, such as rechargeable lithium-ion battery systems for use in homes, commercial facilities, and utility grids; designs, manufactures, installs, maintains, leases, and sells solar energy systems to residential and commercial customers; and sell renewable energy to residential and commercial customers.

The company was formerly known as Tesla Motors, Inc. and changed its name to Tesla, Inc. in February 2017. Tesla, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. – Yahoo Finance

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